The third wish

"Djinnification?" suggested Merlyn.

"yes, exactly. On the subject of freeing you from djinnification, if you had free will to wish for whatever you wanted."

Again, without a moment's pause, Astra went into a trance and began reciting her response as though she had memorized it long ago:
"I would wish to turn myself back into a human, or to never have been sucked into this lamp. However, that wish is not possible to grant."

Astra returned to her senses, looking rather pleased with herself. Evidently, she beleived she had settled the matter in the minds of Fred and Merlyn. She didn't have much time to be pleased with herself, though, because she was soon enveloped in a cloud of smoke. The smoke was absorbed by the lamp, with her in it.

"Astra!" yelled Fred, snatching at the smoke in vain. When there was no smoke left, Fred turned towards the lamp. However, it seemed to be becoming transparent, as though made of glass. Fred blinked, and soon the lamp had dissappeared altogether.

Fred stared for a long while at the place where the lamp had been. Finally, he turned to Merlyn. "Merlyn! Merlyn, what just happened?"

"Well, it looks like the djinn granted her three wishes, and now she and her lamp have vanished to await her next master."

"But to where? Where did they vanish to?"

"That depends. Where did you find the lamp?"

Fred pointed uneasily towards the stall.

"So it was in this cave?"

Fred nodded.

"Well, then. the answer is very simple. When lamps vanish, they return to the cave where they were found. The lamp has vanished to some other place of this cave. So, if you really want to free your friend now that we know her humanity hasn't been truly destroyed by her djinnification, you simply need to find where, in this cave, she has disappeared off to."

Fred seemed to have regained the power of speech. "Oh, Astra. What am I going to do now?"

1. Explore the cave to find her
2. Forget Astra, go slay the dragon
3. Ask about turning Velus back into a human

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